Comparison of the Rotating Source Identifier and the Virtual Rotating Array Method

The aim of this paper is to present two acoustic beamforming methods developed for rotating sources, namely the Rotating Source Identifier (ROSI) and the Virtual Rotating Array method (VRAM). These were applied onto a series of simulated test cases, and their behaviour was analysed. Both methods were able to localise the source reliably. However, the source strength was found to depend on the number or microphones when VRAM was applied. This phenomenon was quantified and an approximate formula was given providing the minimum number of microphones required to reach a certain amplitude error. Beamwidth and side lobe suppression were found to agree between the two methods, meaning that the way rotation is handled does not significantly affect the point spread functions. The computational cost of ROSI was two to three orders of magnitude higher than that of VRAM. The results show that both methods are applicable for the beamforming analysis of rotating sound sources. However, in case of VRAM, the number of microphones has to be chosen carefully to obtain reliable amplitude results.